Taylor Swift has proven her influence within the music industry with the release of her eleventh album, The Tortured Poets Department. On top of the original sixteen tracks, Swift added an extra fifteen in her release of The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. These thirty-one tracks add to Swift’s discography and reflect on new themes alongside the familiar topics that she has become an expert on, including her classic breakup and love songs as well as songs about friendship, childhood, and fame. Some also address the controversies around Swift’s recent relationships, including the end of her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn. Alwyn was discussed in many of Swift’s previous albums including reputation, Lover, folklore, evermore, and Midnights. These songs provide more context about Swift and Alwyn’s breakup and further reflect on experiences detailed in Midnights, Swift’s tenth album. There are also songs about Swift’s new partner, Travis Kelce, and her brief but meaningful relationship with Matty Healy. Even though this album is filled with songs about relationships and breakups, there are also mentions of friendship breakups and Swift’s experience on her recent tour, as well as many other noteworthy topics. The poetic style of this album truly shines through with the jaw-dropping lyricism and complex metaphors. Swift worked with her long-time producers, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, to create this groundbreaking album. Some fans consider it to be her best album yet.

Lyrically and sonically, Swift has created true poetry with The Tortured Poets Department, particularly exemplified by the fan-favorites “Peter” and “How Did It End?”. “Peter” discusses a relationship in the context of the characters Peter and Wendy from the classic children’s movie Peter Pan. Many fans have noted Swift’s use of a similar metaphor in the songs within the folklore love triangle, such as in the song “cardigan.” In “cardigan,” she says, “I knew you / Tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy.” In these songs, she uses the metaphor of waiting for a loved one to grow and mature in order to have a successful relationship with them. Here, she builds on her already successful storyline that surrounds the naive theme of first loves. In “How Did It End?” Swift discusses the idea of people using her heartbreak as gossip. She talks about the difficulties of sharing her stories and relationships when she seems to be constantly blamed in the media for her dating habits. She feels hopeless as she has to admit to another failed relationship. The poetic lyricism in the bridge of this song has caught many fans’ attention. Swift sings, “Say it once again with feeling / How the death rattle breathing / Silenced as the soul was leaving / The deflation of our dreaming / Leaving me bereft and reeling / My beloved ghost and me / Sitting in a tree / D-Y-I-N-G.” Here, she takes inspiration from a childhood jingle with an innocent connotation and transforms it into a heartbreaking analysis of her lost relationship. Aside from her lyrics, Swift collaborated with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner on these songs and throughout the rest of the album to create beautiful guitar and piano solos. The emotion that is expressed through Swift’s voice really helps to highlight the devastating undertones in her lyrics. 

Taylor Swift recently took the world by storm with “The Eras Tour.” In this tour, Swift performs over three hours of her music spanning all of her previous albums or “eras.” In The Tortured Poets Department, Swift touches on her experience with working so hard during this tour while she was heartbroken. “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” tells Swift’s audience how difficult it has been for her to fake her happiness on stage. She is completely vulnerable with lyrics, “All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting ‘more!’ / I was grinning like I’m winning / I was hitting my marks / ‘Cause I can do it with a broken heart.” She tells her fans how much pressure she has been under to be the absolute best. These themes are also reflected in the final track of the original album, “Clara Bow.” In this song, Swift uses female icons of the past such as Clara Bow and Stevie Nicks to represent how everyone in the music industry is essentially replaceable. She talks about a time in the future when young female artists will be compared to her as she looks back on all the times she was compared to these original celebrities. She says, “You look like Taylor Swift / In this light / We’re loving it / You’ve got edge she never did / The future’s bright / Dazzling.” Fans have speculated that this part of the song may be reflective of the recent young artists who have been compared to Swift such as Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, and Gracie Abrams. Swift has addressed similar fears of replacement in songs like “The Lucky One” and “Nothing New.” These songs are an excellent addition to the album, providing new insight on how Swift is feeling about her career. She brings awareness to the faults of the music industry while penning masterful lyrics to explain her personal feelings.

With Swift’s recent breakup with actor and songwriter Joe Alwyn, fans were expecting an overwhelming majority of The Tortured Poets Department to be about their relationship. However, many of the songs actually seemed to focus on Swift’s short relationship with the lead singer of The 1975, Matty Healy. Songs like “Fortnight” and “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” seem to be most closely associated with Healy. 

Many of the other songs, like the title track “The Tortured Poets Department” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” seem to be a topic of discussion among fans. These songs include lyrics that could be in reference to either Alwyn or Healy. Fans are fairly certain, however, that songs like “So Long, London” and “loml” are about Alwyn. “So Long, London” directly parallels one of Swift’s previous songs about Alwyn, “London Boy.” She also uses imagery of death and graves in this song which she also used in the Midnights song, “You’re Losing Me.” These songs all include context on their break up and how Alwyn seemed to be neglecting their relationship. Swift conveys how she felt unimportant and unappreciated throughout the later years of their relationship. In contrast, some of the most exciting additions to the album were the songs about Swift’s new boyfriend, Travis Kelce. She notes how Kelce makes her feel admired and important, unlike her exes. With songs like “So High School” and “The Alchemy,” there seems to be an upside to this sad album. 

One of the most significant name drops that was mentioned in this album was Kim Kardashian. The capital letters in the song “thanK you aIMee” spell out “Kim.” Swift had a very difficult past with Kardashian in 2016 when Kanye West attempted to ruin Swift’s career and reputation. Kardashian went along with her husband in this endeavor and made numerous public comments where she called Swift a snake and a liar. In “thanK you aIMee,” Swift talks about how she finally has the platform to call Kardashian out for her bullying. She says that she thanks her for all that she put her through because it led her to the success she has today. Still, she doesn’t cease to mention how awful Kardashian’s actions were in lyrics like “All that time you were throwing punches / I was building something / And I couldn’t wait to show you it was real.”

She also touches on childhood innocence with the song “Robin,” named after Aaron Dessner’s son. This song is a nostalgic memory of living with a clean slate with no regrets before growing up to hardship. Similar to Swift’s previous song, “Never Grow Up,” she remarks on her need to protect these sweet children from the harsh realities of the world as she wishes she had been from them. Overall, this album touches on a lot of different subjects and people, all of which are significant and essential to the complete album. With thirty-one new tracks and lots of different sounds, lyrics, and reflections, some fans have The Tortured Poets Department moving higher and higher in their album rankings. This proves to be one of Swift’s most diverse and complex albums, as she has continued to grow and thrive as an artist. She has proven her spot among the greatest artists of all time with her ability to make it to the top and, more importantly, stay there.